The Kids in the Hall PD Session

Today Brock Faculty of Ed students had the privilege of taking part in a free PD session comprised of a variety of workshops all with the aim to help us pre-service teaching candidates to better understand the complex emotional realities of the students we teach. The sessions began with a very informative and interactive presentation by CAMH on Substance Abuse - the statistics were alarming - we learned about alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, Opioid and inhalant use in Junior/Intermediate grades - many of us were left stunned. As a future P/J teacher I took in this information and am still digesting it - how can we teach "the whole child" in these formative years to make sure that substance abuse risk factors are extinguished and the proper protective factors are in place?

Later this morning I took part in two sessions, The Kid Who Gets Hurt, a session led by The Canadian Red Cross on some common and scary realities of providing first aid for students under our care and supervision if and when they get hurt. This was very informative and on top of learning how NOT to stab myself while administering an EPIPEN -

I learned what to do for asthma attacks, allergic reactions and anaphylaxes, burns, head injuries, cuts, hypothermia, heat stroke, bee stings, etc. A lot of myths were dispelled and I am definitely going to take my first aid training STAT!

The next session I took part in was called, The Kid Whose Faith You Don't Understand. This was led by Brock University's Interfaith Ecumenical Chaplain, Rev. Dr. David Galston, and I learned a lot about 7 major religions that are commonly represented in the student bodies of Ontario Schools. I learned about many of the wonderful themes that inform the religions and how they can make the diverse classroom a warm, compassionate community. I now know more about Hinduism, Buddhism, Baha'i, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism and I found myself very engaged in such a thoughtful, philosophical discussion around religion, belief systems and spirituality.

All in all it was a day well-spent. I am eager to hear about the other sessions that I missed out on.